Visitors
by Dixie Darlin
Summary: MAJOR SPOILERS! During his time in prison, Callaghan receives three visitors, each encounter as awkward and painful as the last.


_This contains** MAJOR SPOILERS** so don't read unless you want to be spoiled on who Yokai is and anything involving his backstory! Cover image from disneytasthic on tumblr.  
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><p><strong><span>Visitors<span>**

"You have a visitor."

Those were four words that Callaghan dreaded to hear. He never knew who would be waiting on the other side of that glass partition separating him from whoever had come to call. He had an idea of who_ might_ be wishing to see him, but the guard escorting him never gave him any clues that might help prepare him. He was deposited to his assigned seat, the jumpsuit he was assigned to wear making the simple act largely uncomfortable. His tired eyes lifted up to greet his guest, only to groan inwardly.

"Well, Robert, if your plan was to ruin me financially, you darn near succeeded," Alistair Krei was saying to him as he picked at his fingernails in an absent-minded habit. "I lost everything, I'm sure you've heard, with the exception of a satellite operation I had. Not that you care."

Callaghan didn't dignify him with a response. He kept his head turned away, his eyes crinkled as he glared at the floor. Krei brought out the worst in him and he didn't want to risk losing his temper with a guard nearby.

"Robert."

Krei's voice dropped its haughty tone for once, yet Callaghan still refused to look at him. A sigh escaped the tech magnate's lips, his hands folding on the small shelf area in front of his chair.

"Robert, listen...I understand why you did it," he muttered just loud enough to wear Callaghan could hear him without having to strain his ears. "I know you just wanted Abigail back, I know you went through hell after what happened."

Callaghan turned his head enough to where he could see Krei from the corner of his eyes, still fixated in a glare. "After you deliberately sent her to her death you mean."

"I didn't send her...Robert, I thought everything was fine!" He opened his hands up, palms up, while trying to reason with him. "Sure, I knew the machine had a small error before I let her go inside the portal, but if I had truly thought that she could've died in there, which may I remind you that she did _not_, do you really think I would've been idiotic enough to risk her life? In front of all those people, no less?"

A growl came from the older man and he snapped his head back towards the floor, his cuffs rattling as he shook with growing rage.

"Robert, I apologized to you almost every day for months," Krei continued, a begging tone in his voice as if he were still trying to gain some forgiveness. "I offered to pay for the memorial service, set up a scholarship in her name, but you wouldn't have any of it. And I'm not saying I don't understand that, I can't imagine losing a child, mostly because I don't have one, but regardless-"

"You slapped me with a gag order after the investigation on you fell through. No hard evidence of foul play, right? Isn't that what they said? You think I wanted anything from you after that?"

"Robert, please, that was my lawyer's idea and you were-"

"Did you just come here to guilt trip me, Krei?" Callaghan intervened in a low voice, his eyes closing now. "Because I have better things to do. Like stare at the ceiling from my cot."

"Robert..."

"Call me that again and I'll reach through that partition and-"

"I was fond of Abigail too, you know."

Something snapped in him then, just like he had before. His chair flew out from under him as he jerked to a stand, flinging himself against the glass while Krei nearly toppled backwards.

"Don't you dare pretend you care about her! You have no right to-"

A thick, strong hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder, squeezing him hard enough to make him cry out. "_Professor,_ if you can't behave, we'll deny visitations for good," the guard snarled at him.

"No, no, it's okay!" Krei insisted, having stood up from his seat during this and keeping his eyes glued to Callaghan. He fixed his tie without thinking about it though it was perfectly fine to begin with. "Please, it's okay."

"I don't need your help," Callaghan snapped at him as the guard shoved him back down. "I never did."

"That's quite obvious." Krei blew his breath out, his hand rubbing the space between his eyes. "Have you even spoken to Abigail yet?"

A deep sadness filled him, the anger subsiding for now. "No," he admitted under his breath.

"I'm sure she will, she just needs some time. It came as a shock to her, as you may have guessed, when she heard the whole story."

Callaghan let that sink in before straightening up. Jealousy washed over him, though he told himself not to get upset again. He couldn't risk another mark against him, not when he had to be behind bars for the rest of his life. "You talked with her?"

"Yes. As expected, she was pretty emotional. She wouldn't talk to me until a few days ago. If it makes you feel better, she slapped me when she found out that I let her go inside a defective machine."

Callaghan smirked to himself, picturing the scene. Yes, that made him happy.

"I told her she should drop by."

The happy feeling left. "I suppose you expect me to thank you?"

Krei watched him for a few seconds, no trace of ill will on him. "Of course not. I may be a money-sucking dirtbag, but I like happy endings as much as the next guy." He jerked at his lapels to straighten them, nodding his head once at Callaghan. "Guess we're even now, eh? We both lost everything in the end thanks to each other."

"No," the other said while shaking his head. "My daughter's alive. That's all that matters to me. Even if I can't see her or hear from her, that's all I ever wanted."

Krei smiled softly, not saying anything else before he left. He was okay with being the loser in this particular case.

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><p>Another day, another visitor.<p>

This confrontation wasn't nearly as awkward as the one with Alister Krei, but it was difficult all the same.

A pair of young brown eyes under a mess of black hair overdue for a trim met his momentarily before darting away. Callaghan sighed nasally, his stomach sinking as he observed the boy slouching in his own seat, his arms crossed so tight that it was like he was trying to hide himself. Maybe he was. He may have been a genius, a prodigy even, but he was still only a child.

"Hiro."

"Callaghan."

No "Professor" or "Mister", just plain ol' Callaghan.

Hiro's voice came quietly, the tension noticeable. He had tears in his eyes though he was trying to hold his emotions in, keep himself in check.

"You're here alone?" the former professor asked in slight disbelief. He couldn't believe the boy's aunt would let him visit a prison by himself, unless of course she was ignorant of Hiro's whereabouts.

"She insisted on coming," Hiro mentioned, still not looking up. He rubbed at his arm uncomfortably. "I told her I needed to do this myself."

Callaghan set his jaw and nodded, his eyes lowering down to his shackled hands. "If it's any consolation, I'm-"

"What? Sorry?" Hiro picked up his head and Callaghan saw the burning anger flicker behind his eyes, same as they had when he had tried to kill him on the island. "Tadashi would be alive if it wasn't for you, and you had the gall to tell me to my face that-"

"I know," the older man interrupted him, wincing at the memory. Now that everything was said and done, he couldn't believe that he had let himself belittle his favorite student's death. Tadashi had been almost like a son to him. "I know what I said. That was wrong, and I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't bring my brother back," Hiro griped, his angered face looking more like a pout on him due to his youthful appearance.

Callaghan sighed heavily, his bones aching as he sat there. "Hiro, I can't bring your brother back. I'm sorry he was...caught up in this."

"Caught up?" A few fresh tears fell from Hiro's face, his whole body quivering as he straightened up in his seat. "He was trying to save your life and all you had to say was that he was stupid in being selfless!"

"Hiro, please," Callaghan begged him, his voice gritty with desperation. "I can't apologize anymore than I have. I was too...I was too obsessed with my revenge against Krei to care about anything or anyone else."

Hiro locked eyes with him, the silence unbearable. At last, he relaxed his posture, his hands gripping the sides of the chair now as he rested back. "Look, I'm sorry with what happened with your daughter. I understand you just wanted her back, just like I wanted Tadashi back. But you hurt and killed a lot of people." He let out a sigh as he glanced away as if to recall something. "I'm lucky my friends were able to stop me from becoming just like you. It's funny, because when we met, all I could think was that I could be as great a robotics engineer as you."

Callaghan's heart dropped as Hiro's disappointment in him creeped in. "I'm sorry," he repeated quietly, his eyes growing moist. "I was selfish. I don't expect you, or anyone else, to forgive me."

Hiro said nothing for a moment, simmering silently. "I don't know if I_ can_ forgive," he admitted finally. "I'm never going to be able to move on from this, but I'm not doing any favors to myself by keeping a grudge." He raised his eyes back up to look at Callaghan square in the face. "I can't forgive you right now, and I don't know if I ever truly will, but I'm going to try. Don't think I'm doing it for you. I'm only going to try because my friends are worried about me and I know Tadashi would want me to try too."

Callaghan dropped his head and nodded; he knew better than to say "thank you", lest he succumb to the boy's rage again.

"This is the last time you'll ever see me," Hiro told him as he scooted his chair back noisily, his jacket barely hanging on him. "Goodbye."

The only things he ever heard about the youngest Hamada for there on out was that he was out helping others along with his friends, putting an end to evil. Keeping his brother's name alive, so to speak. Callaghan never was able to tell him, but he was proud of that. Hiro was stopping other people from going too far with their plans to hurt others; Callaghan wished that _he_ had been able to be stopped.

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><p>"Daddy?"<p>

He heard her voice before seeing her face, and he nearly knocked the chair over trying to hurry up and sit in it. His angel, his light of his life, his baby girl, his _everything_. She had finally come to see him.

"Abby," he sighed with the first smile he'd had in a long time. He knew he had tears in his eyes but he didn't care. All he cared about was that his daughter had come at last.

She smiled prettily back at him through her own tears, her hand pressed against the glass. "Long time, no see," she sniffed as Callaghan did his best to press his own hand against hers, feeling the warmth through the glass.

"I know," he said, his heart swelling. "Baby, I missed you so much."

"I missed you too," Abigail said back, a flash of pain in her eyes. "Daddy, I...I was so confused when I heard what happened..."

Callaghan's smile faded a bit, his hand drawing away from hers now. "I'm sorry," he said simply, avoiding her gaze. "You shouldn't have had to go through all that. I should've been there with you, not...not _here_."

"You hurt a lot people," she said with her head down as tears fell from her eyes. "I'm sorry, Daddy, I shouldn't have gone through with such a dangerous experiment..."

Callaghan popped his head up, looking horrified. "No, no, no," he spat out quickly. "No, don't blame yourself for what I did."

"But if I hadn't offered to test the portal, then-"

"_No._ Perish that thought now. You did nothing wrong. It was me." He sighed tiredly as he sat back against the seat. "I shouldn't have let my grief and hatred of others run my decisions."

She nodded, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. "I still love you, Daddy," she said in a small voice but it warmed his heart all the same. "I can't believe you did what you did, but I can't hate you. I wanted to...that's why it took me so long to visit. I thought I couldn't love someone who would hurt people, but you did it for me..."

"No, I did it...for myself," he finally admitted. "I fooled myself into thinking it was for you, but it was all to make myself feel better."

Abigail pulled a tissue out of her purse to dab at her eyes. "Daddy, I...I can't imagine how it felt to think I was dead. I don't know what I would've done if it had been the other way around." She looked at him again with a small smile. "I'm going to try to salvage the family name at least. It'll be hard, but it's worth a shot."

Guilt overwhelmed him. "Abby, I'm sorry I put you through this...if I'd known you were alive in that portal, I would've dived in myself to fetch you and forgotten all this revenge mess."

"I know." She wiped at her eyes again. "I know you would have."

He smiled lightly, his fingers rubbing together as he tried to think of what to say. Funny how he'd imagined this day for almost forever and now that it was happening, he couldn't think of anything off the top of his head.

"I'm going to pool some money together with Krei and dedicate a building of the school to that boy that died," Abigail said to him in one breath, as if she were worried her father would get angry about it. "I can't remember his name, something Hamada."

"Tadashi," Callaghan offered with a sad tone. That kid was going to haunt him the rest of his life.

"Yes, him," she nodded, having remembered the name once she heard it. "I saw his little brother at the cemetery not too long ago, and we talked for a little while. He's a sweet kid." Abigail cleared her throat when she found herself trailing off. "Well, I better get going. I have to meet with some people from the bank and settle a few things involving that fire you set."

Callaghan's spirits dropped as she stood up from her seat, feeling an immediate emptiness. "You'll come back and visit, won't you?" he asked in a pleading tone.

"Of course, Daddy," she said with a small smile, pressing her hand against the glass again. "Don't worry about me, okay? I'll be fine."

"It's only natural I worry about you. That's what fathers do best."

Even though he was behind bars, Callaghan was a father 'til the end. His daughter continued with her life, visiting him when she was able. He never failed to tell her how proud he was of her...proud that she didn't end up like him.


End file.
